Karl Wolff

Karl Wolff (13 May 1900-17 July 1984) was an Obergruppenfuhrer of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany and Supreme Commander of the Schutzstaffel in Italy during World War II.

Biography
Karl Wolff was born on 13 May 1900 in Darmstadt in the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, German Empire. Wolff joined the Imperial German Army at the age of 16 during World War I in the Hesse Infantry Regiment, but after the war's end he was demobilized and became a banker. In 1924, the Deutsche Bank fired him due to inflation, and in July 1931 he joined the Nazi Party and its Schutzstaffel paramilitary wing. On 15 June 1933 he became chief-of-staff to SS leader Heinrich Himmler, and he was a rival of Reinhard Heydrich and a friend of Odilo Globocnik. After Heydrich's death, he was promoted but fired from being Himmler's chief-of-staff; in 1943 he was sent as the SS liaison to Duce Benito Mussolini of Fascist Italy and became the Higher SS and Police Leader in Italy in October. By 1945, he was the acting military commander in Italy, serving as a general of both Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic. He was imprisoned after the war and released in 1947 after testifying against his former comrades, and he died in 1984.